The trouble and triumphs of world building.....
World building is definitely something I struggled with in the first book. Despite having a pretty thorough image of the Ward, the Isle, and Upstate in my head, I found it difficult to translate from my head to the reader’s mind. I believe there’s a quote by Christopher Nolan, where he talks about efficiency of language… How you explain an idea to an audience a million different ways and yet no one will understand you. But if you find the right, single way to express your idea -- leaving out the unnecessary bits -- they will. That quote applies to so many aspects of storytelling, as well, but I find it particularly useful when thinking about world building.
As for the triumphs, well, they’re limitless. You can build from the ground up. You can discover new species or reinvent history. You have, as Genie would say...
For Type A's like myself, this is a serious joy.
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Drought season is coming....The Ward is in trouble—its streets filled with seawater after a devastating flood and its impoverished inhabitants suffering from a deadly disease called the Blight.
Ren, with the help of her scientist friend, Callum, and her racing buddy, Derek, has discovered a cure—miraculous spring water—administering it to her sick sister, Aven. But when Aven is kidnapped by Governor Voss, the malevolent dictator of the United Metro Isles (UMI), Ren must go on a dangerous mission to save her sister, again.
The mysterious healing water is the only source of freshwater throughout the entire UMI—water that Ren had been tasked by the government to discover. Although she refuses to give up the water’s location, Governor Voss has his own selfish reasons for wanting it. And he will do anything to satisfy his thirst for unquenchable power.
But Ren and Aven have more enemies than the governor. An ancient order, the Tètai, has been guarding the magical water for hundreds of years. And they will kill to protect it. With the Ward in desperate need of freshwater and wracked by disease—and deadly enemies at every turn—the sisters face a dangerous journey, marred by mysterious secrets and horrifying truths, to save their friends and neighbors, and a city.
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ABOUT JORDANA FRANKEL:
Jordana Frankel is a Jersey native.
She's been a camp counselor, a salesperson of diamonds, a hostess at a southwestern grill, an archivist of rare books, a yoga instructor, and a reading teacher, but her shining moment was when she got to hang out in Walmart for 12 hours a day as the AXE girl.
She received her B.A. in English from Goucher College, graduated and then went to live in Italy for a year. Afterwards she then went for her MFA in Poetry at Hollins University.
But then she graduated and she moved back to NYC.
She got her first job at The Literary Group International as a literary agency, where she'd started as an intern reading queries and then assisted editorially. At Linn Prentis Literary, also a literary agency, she handled foreign sales, picked up gems from unsolicited mail, and helped authors through the publishing process. And then it was onto The Book Report Network where she handled ads and promos for features on Teenreads.com, Kidsreads.com, and GraphicNovelReporter.com.
Jordana is currently writing a (history textbook/)novel entitled THE WARD, forthcoming from KT Books/HarperCollins in 2013. She also teaches creative writing workshops for kids ages 8 to 18 through Writopia Lab, a non-profit organization based in New York City.
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Tour Schedule:
Week 1:
1/13: Live To Read - Review
Week 2
1/22: Emily Reads Everything - Review
I want to pass out lots of wings! I liked the discussion on world-building and use of language. I find that sometimes I have to put daily explanantions in different forms/words to try to get my listener to understand a new concept. Thanks for the post!
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